The Handmaiden by Park Chan Wook is a revenge thriller/history film that takes place in Korea (occupied by Japan back then) around the 1930s. The plot is frankly sexual yet voluptuously beautiful, sometimes horrifically violent and perverse. At times, the very core of the movie even feels quite inexplicable.

Yet, despite all that, the disparate pieces throughout the movies are set up with great care, with well-written characters that are acted out by talented actors. Their psychological acuity is so exceptional that you can naturally blend in with their stories, rarely feeling like the director/writer is trying to rub everything in your face.

Most of The Handmaiden occurs around and inside the country estate of a book collector - a beautifully realized mansion that's not simply stunning due to its splendid design - only rivaled by the estate in "Crimson Peak," another Gothic romance of the modern era - but also serves as the entire film's organizing metaphor.

Nothing in the movie is what it looks like. Soon enough, the audience will start asking themselves many questions. What does the character hope for? What goal he's trying to achieve by stealing that, doing this, sneaking here? Do they spy in secret, or does the person being spied on know that someone is watching?

Release: 2016

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Stars: Kim Min Hee, Kim Tae Ri, Ha Jung Woo

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Though just released in 2022, "Decision to Leave" has already been crowned as one of the best movies directed by Park Chan Wook. The major pleasure in the movie is that Park Chan Wook seems to enjoy making the movie as much as you will enjoy watching it.

A baroque, heady mystery combined with vintage romantic fatalism that flutters the hearts of the noir-darkened audience, Decision to Leave is about an impossible love that makes even a determined viewer wonder whether it's impossible for him to get his grip on this ingeniously sly, slippery movie. But do not worry; navigating through the enigmas, shifting among clues, and disclosing their deep secrets are what attract viewers to movies like this. And even if you meet a seemingly dead end, Park Chan Wook will soon lead you back to the track.

Another thing to note is the movie's speed: Park Chan Wook drops the audience into the main plot so quickly that some viewers even think they have missed out on the first 20 minutes (or even a prequel) - which is understandable. Its opening hooks you immediately with oddball swerves, narrative ellipses, controlled freneticism, and unpredictable jump cuts, creating a good, inviting ambiguity.

Release: 2022

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Stars: Wei Tang, Park Hae Il

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

In I'm A Cyborg But That's OK, the main character, Young Goon (played by Lim Sujeoing) has a very odd look rarely seen in all cinematic movies. She wears black fright wigs with thick bangs, accompanied by protruding teeth (as she claims to love wearing her grandma's denture) and bleached eyebrows. And don't forget those times when her mouth is opened to disclose a bullet machine gun that shoots off her fingers!

Why do all these weird things happen? It's because Yong Goon really believes that she is a cyborg - so much so that the family members even have to send her to mental health facilities. Here's where she encounters many fellow patients undergoing different kinds of delusions, recreated with panache by Park Chan Wook.

"I'm A Cyborg But That's OK" flirts well with cutesy madness - the tendency to minimize mental illnesses by using them as excuses to have quirky characters. Though some patients are a bit more than just punch lines sometimes, their main role is still to serve as the background's visual gags. Each character is given a defining idiosyncrasy - a case in point is the man walking backward due to his apologetic pathology - and that's basically it.

But this does not bother most audiences as it should have. Such movie plots are partly the reason why Lim shines, as she never lets her strange behavior or look overshadow the humanity of the character she plays.

Release: 2006

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Stars: Im Soo Jung, Jeong Ji Hoon, Oh Dal Su

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

At the start of Oldboy, a drunk Oh Dae Su is chained at a police station, waiting for his friend to bail him out. While this friend is busy making telephone calls. Old Dae Su suddenly disappears on an empty street - just to wake up in what resembles a deteriorating hotel room with bathroom cubicles, a TV, a desk, and a bed. There's a small door with slots near the ground, where food trays are delivered to keep from dying of hunger.

Sometimes, a music tune plays - a cue for the room to be filled with smoke and knock him out again; when he wakes up, the room has already been cleaned, all of his attires have been altered, and he also got a new haircut.This inexplicable routine went on for a whopping 15 years before he suddenly got released. And here's where everything went down.

In all of its violence and sexuality, Oldboy is not an easy-to-make movie - even for Western countries. The puritanical minority standards - imposed and threatened on broadcasting - make many studios feel unwilling to make films that may encounter uncertain distribution.

Yet, the content does not constitute a bad or good movie - what matters is the message it wishes to convey. "Oldboy" is still regarded as a legend to this day - a powerful movie - not due to the mere story it depicts, but the human heart's depths that have been stripped bare.

Release: 2003

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Stars: Choi Min Sik, Yoo Ji Tae, Kang Hye Jung

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Lady Vengeance, the third movie in Park Chan Wook's revenge trilogy following Sympathy Vengeance and Oldboy, revolves around Lee Geum Ja (played by Lee Young Ae). The woman has just been out of prison 13 years after her confession of kidnapping and murdering a boy.

The incarceration costs her more than a decade of freedom and even forces her to abandon her daughter's custody. Due to this wrong imprisonment, Geum Ja spent all of her incarcerated time planning big revenge on Baek (played by Choi Min Sik), the school teacher directly responsible for this disaster.

Most of Park Chan Wook's films have either been "hate it" or "love it" films, and Lady Vengeance is not an exception. While some audiences cannot stand its dark themes, there are still people enchanted by its visual imagery and spiritual undertones. The movie's dark comedy can even pull out some delighted waves of laughter!

Overall, Lady Vengeance is still a beautiful sight to behold. Its deep exploration of revenge ethics is intriguing and - according to some critics - even more intelligent than Quentin Tarantino's approaches to similar topics. The jokes and comedies - particularly in the movie's latter third - are funny, well-timed, and on point, boosting your viewing experience even more. It deserves to be lauded as one of the best movies directed by Park Chan Wook.

Release: 2005

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Comedy

Stars: Lee Young Ae, Choi Min Sik

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

The creepy, chilling yet stylish "Stocker" starts at the plot's end, taking the viewers on a lurid and shocking journey before letting them land where they started and see every little detail from a different lens. It is disturbingly brilliant!

Some audiences may say that the emphasis on psychopathic behaviors glorifies and exploits violent acts splattered through the entire screen - no wonder many people feel like walking out after some scenes, such as the masturbation sequence in the shower laced with flashbacks of murders.

But following similar films like "Natural Born Killer", "Badlands", and "Cold Blood", Stoker is not a shallow story about simple murderers. The crimes are committed not just by gangsters or masked monsters, but by broken souls born without any conscience (or have left it somewhere behind).

One minor drawback, though: although Park Chan Wook's talent is undeniable, he showed it off a bit too much that you might even feel distracted in some scenes. Certain shots (ex: the zoom-in of the pencil's red curlicue shaving after being used as weapons) are brilliantly executed and darkly funny. But sometimes, you might wish there was someone else in the room to remind the director: "Is this solo scene really necessary?"

Release: 2013

Genre: Mystery, Horror, Thriller

Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the bizarre and deeply twisted film by Park Chan Wook, is on par with the traditional spirits of Jacobean tragedies due to the extravagant violence, sentimental sibling relationships, brooding flair, and malcontents for piercing horror images.

The movie is a story about human beings descending into hell. Ryu (played by Shin Ha Kyun), a disabled man that cannot speak or hear, is fired from the factory since he takes too much time to take care of his sister - an ill patient that currently needs new kidneys. Desperate for money to afford the transplant, he decides to kidnap a small young girl, who's the child of a rich industrialist portrayed by Song Kang Ho. Things go horribly wrong afterward for Ryu, as he sees himself as an avenger, not hesitating to commit grotesque violence.

Many audiences are still debating whether the movie is convincing on human levels or narratives. We admit that the plots sometimes are opaque, and the sympathy of any avengers in the movie is impossible: something profoundly alienated and alienating about all of it is playing out on the screen.

Nevertheless, Park Chan Wook successfully put everything together in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance via exceptional visual style, which makes the film jangle in your mind even after the last credits are rolled.

Release: 2002

Genre: Drama, Crime

Stars: Song Kang Ho, Shin Ha Kyun, Bae Doo Na

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%